As if a match that featured two penalty kicks wasn't odd enough, Denison and Hiram took strange to a whole new level on Wednesday night by starting their match on one field and ending it on another. The end result was a 2-2 tie which keeps Denison in second place in the North Coast Athletic Conference standings heading into Saturday's final regular season game.
The match began, as scheduled, at 7 p.m. on Barclay-Thomsen Field. Hiram got on the scoreboard first when Nick Gdanetz scored off a penalty kick following a hard tackle by Denison's Drew Lash (Ballwin, Mo./The Whitfield School) in the box. Just over six minutes later Denison would tie the match on a beautiful feed from Hubert Beauchemin (Hudson, Ohio/Western Reserve Academy) who crossed the ball from the left side of the field right to the forehead of Denison forward Lenny Mills (Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper St. Clair) who finished off the play for his fifth goal of the season.
Things would stay 1-1 until the 71st minute when Hiram's Petar Knezevic chipped a ball from just inside the 18-yard box over the head of DU goalkeeper Kevin Donahue (Riverside, Conn./Greenwich) for his 10th goal of the season.
Denison's quick strike offense would show up two minutes later when midfielder Peter Shorten (Hudson, Ohio/Western Reserve Academy) got out on a breakaway and was tackled inside the goalie box, resulting in a penalty kick for the Big Red. Shorten converted the kick, his second of the season, tying the match at 2-2.
After neither team could muster a goal in regulation, the match went into overtime and that's where things got interesting. In the 95th minute of play, a Hiram player was issued a yellow card after a hard tackle on Denison's Ryan Torgersen (Spring, Texas/Klein) around midfield. An ambulance would need to be called for Torgersen who suffered an apparent leg injury. It turns out that 95 minutes of soccer combined with a large amount of rainfall over the last few weeks had Barclay-Thomsen Field a little on the soft side. After attending to Torgersen, the ambulance was unable to leave the field due to the muddy conditions. After a 40 minute delay, the officials and the two teams decided the best course of action would be to move the match to the FieldTurf at Deeds Field-Piper Stadium. After exactly a one hour delay, play resumed at 10 p.m. and the final 14:08 was played out on the artificial surface.
On the turf, both teams had a few strong chances to score. Hiram's Knezevic sent a screamer that went just wide left. Hiram also nearly scored on an own goal by the Big Red early in the first overtime. For Denison, with just over three minutes to play in the second OT, Chris Olson (Arlington Heights, Ill./Rolling Meadows) headed a ball off the foot of Tucker Mauke (Simsbury, Conn./West Simsbury) that was saved by Hiram's Joe Tatum.
The two teams attempted a total of 32 shots with Hiram leading the category 17-15. DU took four corners to Hiram's three and both goalkeepers posted six saves.
The tie moves Denison's record to 9-4-3 overall and 5-1-2 in the NCAC while Hiram goes to 9-6-2 overall and 3-3-2 in conference play. The Big Red will close out their season schedule on Saturday when they host The College of Wooster at 1 p.m.
